WHY THE CHANGE OF HEART?

This past January the Canon 1Ds Mark III was sold; several factors led up to the 1Ds Mark III’s sale:

1. •Clipping Highlights - This was a recurring them with the 1Ds Mark III. When shooting landscape I would often 3 to 5 takes of the same scene because the Evaluative metering over-exposed. Sometimes the metering was spot-on, but more often than not too much of the clouds or other highlights had blown. In part I blame the sensor, but my other concern was the metering. On the Leica M8, Mamiya ZD and Nikon D700 --- all of those cameras do NOT lock metering when the shutter button is half-pressed. Canon does, so if the scene changes then the metering might not be correct. If auto-focus is assigned to the focus On/Off button, then the half press does NOT lock the metering. I like having the auto-focus on/off assigned to the shutter button.
   

2. Somehow the 1Ds Mark III’s metering and sensor capabilities felt out of sync. The 1Ds Mark III metered correctly often enough that I did not feel the body needed adjustment. Instead I think the evaluative metering was overly optimistic (metering a bit hot) and the 1Ds Mark III sensor did not have a enough dynamic range in the highlights to keep pace. There are ways to work around this (such as assigning auto-focus to the on/off button), but the other cameras did not give me these headaches, so I chalked it up as something to do with the Canon gestalt. 
   

3. •Color Swirl - For long time Canon dSLR owners, the AA filter probably is not a big issue. For those of us who have gone off the reservation and used a medium format digital back, the Leica M8 or some other non-AA filter camera --- the difference is night and day. The 1Ds Mark III images required more sharpening than I ever used before. With that sharpening came digital artifacts and other destructive side effects. Long story short, for 21 MP the 1Ds Mark III did not feel like a sharp, high resolution dSLR.
   

4. •Auto-Focus - With the 1Ds Mark III Canon changed how the wheels selected the auto-focus points; I never got the hang of the new free-wheeling-methodology. This resulted in far too much wheel turning to select a simple auto-focus point - and often a missed shot. The thumb-stick is poorly placed and unless you are graced with some seriously large Pro NBA All-Star hands. If not, then there is no way on this planet a normal person’s thumb can reach the thumb-stick with 1Ds Mark III in portrait orientation. So, its back to more dumb-ass wheel turning. And the odds are - the desired auto-focus point is not even selectable because only 17 out of the 45 points can be selected.
   

5. Single-shot auto-focus performance seemed to be okay, but i do not feel the same about Servo Focus.  I am not a sports shooter, but I managed okay with the 1Ds, 1D Mark II and 1Ds Mark II. When it comes to moving subjects and the 1Ds Mark III, I gave up on auto-focus and manually focused everything. Servo focus was not a deal breaker for me, but the dual wheel auto-focus point selection business was.
   

In one sentence - the 1Ds Mark III is a $8,000 camera with not-so-sharp files, clipping highlights and frustrating auto-focus. Add on another $8,000 in lenses, Speedlites and accessories and I started asking why I had $16,000 sunk into a system that was not putting a smile on my face. In fairness to the 1Ds Mark III there are good qualities too:  outstanding viewfinder, great ISO performance, Live View, a good LCD, fast operation, 14-bit files, the color, build quality, good amount of info presented in the viewfinder, ability to upload custom color styles, great battery life and Canon DPP software with lens corrections. As a system I am okay with Canon, but for $16,000 it was not delivering $16,000 worth of performance.

THE NEXT STEP

In the middle of the M8 melt-down (around December) I bought a new Nikon D700. Nice camera, but the file quality turned out to be more hype than substance. Its files were soft too. Like the 1Ds Mark III they sharpen up fine, but for a 12 MP camera, I expected crisp file quality, not an AA mush stew. I know various reviews and websites state Nikon as having amazing dynamic range. The D700 meters more towards the highlights, so fewer blown highlights - and that is good. The consequence is dark mid-tones and blacked-out shadows. Shadow recovery, boosting tone curves and levels editing open up the mid tones, but also noise. If some website wants to claim how great the D700’s dynamic range is, well, they need to qualify that statement by also saying how much noise comes with that dynamic range.

Sony sensors always have a catch-22 since their best dynamic range is at ISO 200 and the best noise floor is at ISO 100. With a Canon sensor the best noise performance and best dynamic range is at ISO 100. With Canon it is a win-win scenario. With Nikon if you want the best dynamic range, then there will be added noise to deal with in post processing. The D700 ran circles around the M8 in terms of ISO range and file quality above ISO 640, but it was not Nikon bliss for me. Nor was I crazy about the Nikon 50mm F1.4 G. The Nikon D700 set-up was sold and the dSLR search continues...

WHAT’S COMING FOR 2009?

The last six months has been very busy with trying various systems, different lenses and different software. I have not found the magical mix of equipment yet. I have found that money is finite and there is a point where “enough is enough”. For 2009 we planned on a summer-stay-cation, but plans changed and it is back to Alaska in August. This is our second time to Alaska, so this time I know better what I want to take - and medium format will NOT be in the bag. Instead a Canon 5D Mark II with the a Canon 28-300L IS. It is unlikely I will buy any primes for the 5D Mark II. Instead that role will go to the Leica M8.